Vaping looks like a product of the last couple of decades, yet the idea behind it, heating something to breathe in its vapor instead of burning it, is far older. This is a short tour from hot stones to pod systems.
Vapor before electricity
The principle goes back thousands of years. In ancient Egypt, people placed herbs and oils on heated stones and breathed in what rose from them, whether for spiritual, medical or recreational reasons.
Much later, in 15th century India, the hookah appeared. A conventional pipe burns its tobacco; a hookah heats it. The tobacco was typically flavored and combined with water vapor, which is not far from how a present-day vape behaves.
Patents that went nowhere
Nobody can be named with certainty as the inventor of the vape pen. Several people got close, decades apart.
- 1927: Joseph Robinson filed a patent for a device he described as an electronic vaporizer. The drawings resemble a modern pen, but it was never sold, and nobody knows whether he built one at all.
- 1965: Herbert Gilbert filed a patent of his own for a smokeless, non-tobacco cigarette. It had flavor cartridges, produced vapor without smoke, and relied on a heating element much like the ones in today’s e-cigs. Manufacturers at the time were not interested, he could not bring it to market, and the patent lapsed.
- Late 1970s: Norman Jacobson, a physician, and Phil Ray, a computer scientist, worked on a device that vaporized nicotine. Theirs did reach store shelves, but it never caught on.
More inventors made attempts at an electronic cigarette during the 80s and 90s. None of those reached a mainstream audience.
Hon Lik and the first commercial success
The breakthrough came from Hon Lik, a pharmacist in China. His father had died of lung cancer, and that loss pushed him to design an alternative to cigarettes. Once he had a working device, his company, Dragonite International, turned it into a product and put it on sale in 2003.
From one device to hundreds
The market grew quickly after 2003. When this article was first written, US sales figures showed the industry doubling within four years.
That money brought variety with it. Hundreds of vaporizers and e-cigarettes are now sold, ranging from big, decorative pens down to compact pod systems.
Where to go from here
If the history has you curious about the hardware, ejuice.deals carries vape juice and pens, complete systems, replacement parts and kits for building your own setup. For those who are not fussy about flavor, there is also a mystery grab bag.